OpenADR

Open Automated Demand Response (OpenADR) is a research and standards development effort for energy management led by North American research labs and companies. The typical use is to send information and signals to cause electrical power-using devices to be turned off during periods of high demand.

In its early phases, the OpenADR research was initiated by Demand Response Research Center (DRRC) which is managed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). The specification was released in April 2009. By contrast, the related OpenHAN standard for home area networks was promoted by utilities themselves and is an attempt to reconcile various home control technologies including X10, Insteon, P1901 and HomePlug.

An Open Automated Demand Response (OpenADR) outreach collaborative was eventually formed in October 2010 and a related OpenADR Alliance [1] "to accelerate the development, adoption and compliance of OpenADR standards throughout the energy industry" and "provide common language" for smart meters. The effort sought publicity for its attempt to unify smart grid plans under a common standards umbrella to form a viable cleantech industry with a relatively level playing field. As NIST and NERC were committed to the OpenADR approach all along and the National Broadband Plan (United States) required (in its "goal 6") open access to consumer power use data by ADR providers, there was probably little doubt of the standards influence.

Demand Response (DR) is a set of actions taken to reduce load when electric grid contingencies threaten supply-demand balance or market conditions occur that raise electricity costs. Automated demand response consists of fully automated signaling from a utility, ISO/RTO or other appropriate entity to provide automated connectivity to customer end-use control systems and strategies. OpenADR provides a foundation for interoperable information exchange to facilitate automated demand response.

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